The Life and Wisdom of Father Aloysius Hacker

I became aware of Fr. Aloysius Hacker and his unique
approach to AI through a research report in an old
AISB
Quarterly, the newsletter of the
Society
for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour.
A page long, the report described
a robot billiards player. It dismissed
object recognition and tracking in one paragraph.
The rest of the page, it devoted in great and reassuring detail
to the workings of an integer-equality predicate
used in counting balls. Which makes sense,
because why say much about what you're not confident of?
Readers want stuff they can trust.
Then yesterday,
I came across Fr. Hacker again, in
The Researcher's
Bible (1): thirteen pages of excellent advice to research students,
in which Fr. Hacker demonstrates
how to define the argument to be advanced by a research
paper. So I decided to search out AISB's
online articles by
Fr. Hacker, and here they are. As he asks in one
article, why specify, modularise, or test? To someone of your ability,
suggesting you need such help is an insult.

The links below are all to PDF copies of
AISB
Quarterly. Fr. Hacker always publishes
on page 12.

Fr.
Hacker's Diary
20th August 2001. With high-tech
companies crashing all around us, it is a
major coup for Hacker Enterprises to have
developed an ICT business model that really
works.
(Issue 106)

Fr.
Hacker's Guide for the
Young AI Researcher 1: Creating Time for the Pursuit of
Research
Inspired by the
new look AISB Quarterly, I have remodelled
my column as a guide for the young AI
researcher. In each issue I will tackle a
different skill that the ambitious AI researcher
must perfect. I will identify techniques and
pass on tips that will turn the aspiring novice
into a successful master. For this inaugural
entry in the guide, there is no more important
skill than that of creating time for the pursuit of
research.
(Issue 107)

Fr.
Hacker's Guide for the
Young AI Researcher 9: How to be a
Research Leader
AI research
is labour intensive. To make an impact, you need a devoted work force to
implement your groundbreaking ideas. To orchestrate raw postgraduate students
and postdoctoral researchers into the harmonious, world-class team that you need, it
is essential to know how to be a
Research Leader.
(Issue 115)

The
Life of A.
Hacker Episode 1: The Early Years
I was born to humble parents in a Mayfair slum in
London in 1938. Neighbours would remark on how
much I took after my father, but I saw little of
him during my childhood, since he was a frequent
guest at a high-security Government establishment
at Wormwood Scrubs, …
(Issue 122)

The
Life of A. Hacker
Episode 2: Formative Years
Disowned by my absent parents, in 1950, as a twelve
year old functional orphan, I entered the Academy
for Belief in and the Upholding of Spiritual Education
(ABUSETM) based in Manchester.
(Issue 123)

The
Life of A. Hacker
Episode 4:
Computational Theology
The UK I returned to, at the start of the Swinging Sixties,
was very different from the one I had left.
It was alive to new thinking, especially
to the combination of "white hot" technological
innovation with new forms of spirituality and the spending of large sums of money.
(Issue 125)

The
Life of A. Hacker
Episode 5:
Four Seasons of AI
UK weather is famous for its variability — so is AI weather. From the mid-60s to the mid-80s, AI
went through four seasons, but not in the usual order.
The AI Spring started in the mid-60s, as the diaspora from the demise of CATHOLICTM (Church of
Aloysius Theobald Hacker for Ordinations, Liturgy, Inquisitions and Christenings) founded
new research groups in Edinburgh, Sussex, Essex and elsewhere. Unfortunately, relations with
Mickey MacDonald's group …
(Issue 126)

Fr.
Hacker's Guide for the
Young AI Researcher 16: How to maximise
your citation count
We interrupt the "Life of A. Hacker" to bring you this special and important
supplement to Hacker's Guide. The main determinant of your score in the new
Research Excellence Framework will be citation counts. Maximising
citations to your work will be your passport to appointments, promotions,
and research fame. This can be a blessing,
not a curse, if you learn how to be cited.
(Issue 127)